Enhancement of an Adaptive Building-Skin System for Local and Remote Multi-Modal Operation

This paper details the enhancement of a previously presented adaptive building-skin system consisting of independent-yet-interrelated context-aware components in a Cyber-Physical Network (CPN). The present development subsumes and extends the inherited services and capabilities— both mechanical and computational—of the previous system as follows. With respect to the mechanical: a second actuatable layer is integrated along the inherited first layer, which enables ventilation and natural-light intake to be determined independently via separate automatic or manual aperture controls. With respect to the computational: both local and remote, human and non-human multi-modal control / operation is integrated. More specifically, the following three new operation mechanisms are added along the inherited local sensor-based automatic mode: a local manual control-override based on (1) specific desired-aperture values (via a graphical slider) or (2) approximate desired-aperture values (via gyroscopic sensing) both based on Open Sound Control (OSC); and (3) a remote manual and/or automatic control-override based on Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT). The first two mechanisms involve local user interaction via a smart-device, and the third mechanism involves remote human and/or non-human interaction via if-this-then-that (IFTTT) and/or Adafruit IO cloud services. The objective of the enhanced adaptive building-skin system remains the intelligent interfacing between interior and exterior environments in a way that is conducive to user comfort, well-being, and environmental safety. Accordingly, the system is conceived as part of the intelligent built-environment discourse that integrates the technical / technological sophistication of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) / Active and Assisted Living (AAL) advances while remaining informed by Architectural considerations.